Hand-Forged Bollock Dagger, Twin Fullers

More than people assume, and they work in two directions rather than one. The obvious job is the same as a crossguard's: they stop the hand travelling forward onto the blade when a thrust lands and stops dead. But because they sit as a pair on either side of the grip rather than as a bar across it, they also do something a crossguard cannot. They tell your hand which way the blade is facing. A bollock hilt is asymmetric front to back, with the lobes swelling toward the blade and the grip tapering away behind them, so your fingers register the orientation of the edges instantly and in the dark. On a double-edged blade with no spine to lay a thumb along, that matters more than it sounds. The third job is the least glamorous and the most used: they stop the dagger sliding through a belt or a scabbard throat when it is worn, which is why the form survived for three hundred years on civilian belts rather than only in armouries.

Answer this by what you want it to be rather than by which looks best in a photograph, because the largest one always wins on a screen. Take our Bollock Dagger, Fluted Pommel if accuracy matters: 13 inches, lobes and butt carved from one block of timber, and the build we would put in front of a reenactor or a collector. Take our Bollock Dagger, Steel Lobed Hilt if you want the fantasy version: 17 inches with the lobes forged in polished steel and drawn to points, which no medieval smith made and which looks superb on a wall. Take this one if you want something between the two: carved timber lobes as the originals had, at a size the originals never reached, with twin fullers and a capped butt that neither sibling carries. It is the most decorated of the three in the grinding rather than in the fittings.

Because that is the only part of this blade where a fuller does any good. A fuller removes steel from the middle of the blade's thickness, where it contributes least to stiffness, and the more thickness there is to work with the more you can safely take. On a blade that tapers as steadily as this one, the thickness runs out quickly: by the middle the steel is already thin enough that a groove would start eating into stiffness rather than surplus, and near the point it would be actively weakening the part most likely to be loaded sideways. So the fullers are cut into the forte, the broad heavy section just ahead of the hilt, and stopped before the taper properly begins. Two short grooves rather than one wider one is partly aesthetic and partly structural, since it leaves a rib of full-thickness steel down the centre between them. It is also considerably harder to cut, because both grooves have to start and stop at the same points on both faces or the blade looks crooked.

It is the thing that separates a long blade you can hold from a long blade that feels like a crowbar, and hardly anybody selling knives mentions it. Every blade tapers in width toward the point, which you can see. A good one also tapers in thickness, getting progressively thinner from the forte to the tip, and that you have to look for. The effect is out of all proportion to the amount of steel involved: mass removed near the point has far more influence on how a blade swings than the same mass removed near the hilt, so a properly tapered 16 inch blade handles like a shorter one while a blade of even thickness feels dead and nose-heavy no matter how light it is overall. The test takes two seconds. Sight along the spine from the hilt end, or lay the blade flat and look at it edge-on: the thickness should visibly reduce as your eye travels toward the point, smoothly, without steps. Do this on any long blade you are considering, from any maker. A blade with no distal taper has been cut from bar stock rather than forged and ground, and it will never feel right.

No, and it is our addition rather than a historical one. Bollock daggers have no guard beyond the two lobes, and that absence is what defines the type, so no surviving example carries a langet like this. It is well made and it does the blade no structural harm, but if you are buying for accuracy you should order the build without it, which costs nothing extra. Our period bollock dagger page sets the point out in full and is the correct build for reenactment.

Both edges as standard. The blade is broad and stiff at the forte, where the fullers are cut, and tapers evenly from there in both width and thickness to a fine point. It is ground for thrusting first and cutting second, which is what the type was for. If a double edge is a problem where you live, we will sharpen one side and leave the other as a blunt false edge at no extra cost, and the piece looks identical.

It is forged, hardened, tempered and sharpened, so it is a functional weapon rather than a wall-hanger. But be realistic about what a 16 inch double-edged dagger is for. It has no crossguard worth the name, so it is not a fencing piece; it is too long and too finely pointed for any utility job; and the double edge means you cannot put a thumb on the spine or choke up on the blade. What it does well is thrust, and what it does best is hang on a wall and look considerably more serious than most things hanging near it. Most buyers display it, which is a perfectly good reason to own it. If you want something to work with, buy one of our single-edged knives.

We cannot answer that for you and you should be wary of any seller who claims they can. Two provisions tend to apply. Many jurisdictions treat double-edged daggers as their own restricted category regardless of size, and blade length thresholds then apply independently on top. At 16 inches this sits well above the ordinary knife allowance, which in a good many places means it is regulated as a sword or a bladed weapon rather than as a knife, with different rules and different penalties. Import rules are frequently different again from possession and carry rules. Check all three for your own address before ordering. If length is the obstacle, a 10 or 12 inch build costs no more and is inside the historical range anyway.

Because of the obvious resemblance of the two lobes, and the name is not a modern joke; it appears in period inventories as a plain description. The Victorians, who catalogued most surviving collections, substituted "kidney dagger", which is why both terms are still in circulation. Modern museum practice has largely gone back to the original. Our period bollock dagger page covers the naming history and the form's three centuries of use in full.

5160 high-carbon spring steel, the same stock our smiths use for kukris and swords, forged down from leaf spring in the Nepali tradition. It is oil-quenched and then tempered back, giving a blade that holds an edge but stays tough rather than brittle. Toughness matters particularly on a blade this long and this finely tapered: a thrust that lands off-line loads it sideways, and that is exactly where a hard, brittle steel snaps and a properly tempered one flexes and returns. It is not stainless and it will take a patina with use.

Yes, and on this piece there is a great deal of it. A mirror polish is bare steel taken through progressively finer abrasives until the surface stops scattering light, so nothing sits between the steel and the air and a fingerprint left on carbon steel will etch in within days. The fullers make it slightly worse, because a groove holds moisture that a cloth drawn along the flat skips over. Satin costs the same, hides handling almost entirely, and on a piece this size is arguably the more sensible choice. Our wheel pommel dagger page explains the finish in detail.

Close, but not identical. The profile is drawn out by eye against a pattern, the taper is ground by hand in both width and thickness, and the fullers are cut individually so their exact length and where they stop varies a little from piece to piece. The hilt is carved to its own tang and timber differs board to board in colour and figure. What does not vary is the specification: length, steel, construction, heat treatment and sharpness are held to the same standard on every piece. Our kukri machete page explains in more detail what can and cannot differ between two blades from the same bench.